THE MARSHALL: May it please the Tribunal: The report is made that
the defendant Ribbentrop is absent from this session of the
Court.

THE PRESIDENT: I will deal first of all with the documents of the
defendant Rosenberg.

The Tribunal rules that all the documents in Book I, Volume I and
Volume II, should be denied, up to and including the book by
Hellpach - that is to say, Exhibits 1 to 6, and also Exhibits
7E and Exhibit 8.

Secondly, the Tribunal rules that it will take judicial notice of
Exhibits 7 and 7A to 7D. But it rules that those Exhibits, 7 to 7D,
are not to be read at the present stage but may be quoted by counsel
in his final speech.

Thirdly, the Tribunal allows Books II and III; and

Fourthly, the Tribunal rules that the defendant Rosenberg shall be
called first, and any documents which have been allowed may be put to
him in the course of his examination.

That is all.

THE PRESIDENT: Now, Dr. Kauffmann.

DR. KAUFFMANN (counsel for defendant Kaltenbrunner): With the
agreement of the Tribunal, I now call the witness Hoess.

RUDOLF HOESS, a witness, took the stand and testified as
follows:

BY THE PRESIDENT:

Stand up. Will you state your name?

WITNESS: Rudolf Franz Ferdinand Hoess.

THE PRESIDENT: Will you repeat this oath after me: I swear by God,
the Almighty and Omniscient, that I will speak the pure truth and
will withhold and add nothing? (The witness repeated the oath.)

THE PRESIDENT: Will you sit down?

DIRECT EXAMINATION

BY DR. KAUFFMANN:

Q. Witness, your statements will have far-reaching
significance. You are perhaps the only one who can throw some light
upon certain hidden aspects, and who can tell what people gave the
order for the destruction of European Jewry, and can further state
how this order was carried out and to what degree the execution was
kept a secret.

THE PRESIDENT: Dr. Kauffmann, will you kindly put questions to the
witness?

DR. KAUFFMANN: Yes.

BY DR. KAUFFMANN:

Q. From 1940 to 1943, you were the commandant of the camp
at Auschwitz.

Is that true?

A. Yes.

Q. And during that time, hundreds of thousands of human
beings were sent to their death there. Is that correct?

A. Yes.

Q. Is it true that you, yourself, have made no exact notes
regarding the figures of the number of those victims because you
were forbidden to make them?